


731

by leiascully



Series: The FBI's Most Unwanted [63]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Episode Related, Gen, X-Files OctoberFicFest 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:07:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22079689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiascully/pseuds/leiascully
Summary: He should have left the train car.
Series: The FBI's Most Unwanted [63]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/249118
Kudos: 6





	731

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: 731  
> A/N: For the Inktober prompt "ash".

He found ash in his hair, in the car after the latest disaster. X, in the driver’s seat, was silent. Mulder lifted his head weakly and tried to look around. He trusted X, to some extent, but he’d rather know where he was. The road signs blurred. There were no landmarks. The greens and browns of the trees dizzied him. He collapsed back in the seat and let his eyes close. 

Scully was going to be upset. He searched weakly for his phone and couldn’t find it. The gesture seemed familiar and he couldn’t decide whether he’d done it already or not: looked for his phone, tried to reach Scully.

“Stillness may not be your natural state, but it will be to your advantage,” X rumbled.

“Where are we?” Mulder asked. “What happened?”

X said nothing. Mulder subsided. 

Scully would comb the ash from his hair, if X took him back to her. She would send it to the lab, bagged and labeled, and decipher the mysteries of the train car. If X were a sphinx, she would solve his riddle just by squinting at him. Scully had extraordinary powers of deduction. It wasn’t just the potential concussion talking. He wished he could talk to her. He would tell her she was right. He should have left the train car. He wouldn’t have had ash in his hair, in his ears, gritty under the cotton of his shirt. He wouldn’t have had the ringing behind his eyes that was jangling his thoughts into fragments. But Scully would put them back together. She was a champion solver of puzzles, a sage of the cryptic. She was his match and more.

He woke up again in the hospital. X was gone. Scully was by his side, her red hair the beacon that drew him home. She said nothing, just squeezed his hand. He squeezed back.


End file.
